For all the downplaying the respective coaches do, Sunday's matchup between the Giants and Eagles is as big as a regular-season game gets. And nothing in what is effectively this NFC East title game will be as big as the big play.

The quick-strike, yard-chomping, ego-deflating play is Philadelphia's offense. The Eagles are No. 1 in total offense (402.8 yards per game) and No. 2 in scoring offense (28.8 points per game), and there isn't a lot of grinding in any of that.

Sixteen times, the Eagles have connected for a play of at least 40 yards. They have 10 plays of at least 50 yards, five of 60, three of 80 and an almost-routine 67 plays of at least 20 yards.

They've needed fewer than five plays to score 13 times. And three times they've needed just one play to find the endzone. Things can change against the Eagles in a hurry, and that's exactly what the Giants learned the last time they saw them.

"That's how they won, those two big plays in the fourth quarter," cornerback Terrell Thomas said Friday, standing in his locker and shaking his head all this time later.

The Giants have offered a lot of head-shaking this week as they've repeatedly gone back to that Nov. 21 27-17 loss in Philadelphia. Yes, the offense committed five turnovers and got in a 16-3 hole that Sunday night. But the Giants retook the lead at 17-16 and the defense did something that hadn't been done to Michael Vick to that point in the season: They contained him.

The Giants kept Mr. Vick in the pocket and when he did roll out, they forced him to his right, where the lefthander would have to throw across his body to make something happen. His 258 passing yards were manageable, and his 34 rushing yards were pedestrian (by his standards).

The Eagles got nothing in the vertical passing game, and their two pass-plays of more than 20 yards (DeSean Jackson had a catch for 23 yards, Jeremy Maclin had one for 35), came on crossing patterns, not long, aired-out passes. The Giants also did a tremendous job of frustrating tailback LeSean McCoy.

That is, at least until the waning minutes of the fourth quarter when Mr. McCoy put together two huge plays. On a fourth-and-one at midfield, Mr. McCoy took a pitch and raced 50 yards, untouched, into the end zone. A few minutes later, with a 40-yard run, he set up the game-securing field goal. Mr. McCoy admitted this week to being surprised the field was so open. All this same week, the Giants have tried figuring out why it was.

"In reality we know we did a good job bottling things up with them, but then you have plays like that and what you did before is irrelevant," tackle Barry Cofield said.

Linebacker Michael Boley said that first big 50-yard run came on a play call that caught the Giants unaware. He said people still reacted quickly enough to stop Mr. McCoy (him included), but just didn't. Fellow linebacker Keith Bulluck said much the same, that "we had people in position to make that play and he just made the better play."

Mr. Cofield disagreed.

"I refuse to believe that a running back can take off for that long of a gain with everyone doing what they're supposed to do," he said. "Someone wasn't in their gap. Usually when a guy takes off like that, it's something to do with gap responsibility."

Ultimately, he said, the panacea to a big play is discipline.

The Eagles have big play threats throughout their roster. Mr. McCoy, Mr. Jackson and Mr. Maclin all have put together plays longer than 40 yards. Mr. Vick has thrown six touchdowns longer than that. Mr. Rolle said "no, no, hell no" when asked if an Eagle big play is just an inevitability and linebacker Jonathan Goff said it's all about the football clichés .

"They're the clichés because you hear them every week, but you hear them every week because it's the truth," he said. "Team defense, assignment football and great effort. That's what will do it."

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